Hickenlooper made it clear each could apply for reappointment, though none was guaranteed the spot. And if no one is named, state law grants authority of the office to a deputy until such time as a trustee is named.

Two trustees have made it clear they will not be returning: Carol Snyder in Adams County retired rather than resign with her colleagues; Nick Gradisar in Pueblo County said in emails that he didn’t believe he was the right guy for the job, seeing as he’d been renting his trustee office space from himself and his law partners, who owned the building they were in.

That leaves eight — all of whom figured in Denver Post stories about their spending and other practices over the past 18 months. We’ve heard five have applied, but it could be more. Here’s a little reminder of who’s up for the job to run foreclosures in their respective county.

Ana Maria Peters-Ruddick in Arapahoe County used funds to pay for in-office massages for her employees, some of them former colleagues and co-workers when Peters-Ruddick worked along side them under other trustees. She also bought those same workers monthly lunches, which she called working lunches, though the pizzerias and other establishments chosen indicate it was relaxing. She said she stopped the practice for budgetary reasons, even though her office has had a $1 million surplus for each of the past few years. She’s also one of the few trustees not to actually have a budget because, she told auditors, it’s hard to tell how much you’ll have to spend when it’s based on the number of foreclosures filed. This despite having an account equal to a one-year reserve of funds.

Susie Velasquez-Jojola in Weld County is an attorney who thought it was okay to spend funds on her registration and licensing fees, as well as continuing education classes. She says she was told it was okay by the same county officials who said her office was not an official county agency. Nevertheless, being a lawyer wasn’t part of the job description and after so many years in that job, some say she should have known better.

Paul Brown in Mesa County had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with the local newspaper, the Grand Junction Sentinel, over the publication of foreclosure notices. Turns out he’d inked a deal with a different publisher without telling anyone. No problem there. The law allows that. What hurt was how Brown, to make it appear legitimate, had then put the contract out for public bids knowing he had a binding deal already.

And Rich Gebhardt in Boulder County had run an impressive insurance program for his employees that pretty much made it free health care, certainly at a price other county employees couldn’t get. Too, he’d collected a small commission on those policies since he was a long-time insurance salesman. At one time, he had said he actually measured his office space and divided the cost of the rent between his insurance business and his trustee work. His office, though he’s retired, is just upstairs from his trustee desk.

Chapman has been a stalwart trustee, very efficient in her job with few items raising any eyebrow. A former journalist herself, Chapman was politically active enough to garner the appointment, which is pretty much what’s needed to get it. But one troubling thing remains: when she applied for appointment back in 2007, she had listed that same attorney, Larry Castle, as a personal reference. She’s not responded to emailed requests from The Post to detail the nature of that relationship or why it was important to have that on her application.

To his credit, Kennedy came into an office that was charging businesses a fee for access to public information readily available from other trustees. Kennedy stopped the practice, refunding the subscription prices paid by those businesses. Sadly, though, Kennedy was also one of the trustees who thought it just fine to pay for any office expense, down to the $4 retirement card for an employee. (The obvious questions that popped up: “Really? Can’t you even pay that much yourself?”) That was in addition to the $75 cake, the $194 gift, the other $148 gift, the $139 retirement lunch, flowers and party supplies.

Then there were the “employee appreciation” AMEX cards that totaled $335, an $85 “holiday lunch” and a $45 pizza party just days later. Then the $427 spent to entertain the other public trustees at the Wildlife Experience.

All legal? Apparently. Smart? Some say no. Government is not a private business, hence the rules of business do not precisely apply.

Some of the trustees have argued that it wasn’t taxpayer money they were spending. I’m not at all sure why that makes a difference – many police departments could make the same argument, as can other self-funded agencies – but if you were to look at the nitty gritty, taxpayers do indeed pay into the public trustee offices.

Consider that the fees are paid by the foreclosing banks and attorneys, who pass those expenses to the investors buying the house at auction, or the homeowner trying to get the property out of foreclosure, or the homebuyer purchasing the property after the foreclosure is completed. Either way, someone else pays.

Then there was the fiasco last year of the Colorado Public Trustees Association, the non-profit entity the trustees set up to handle training and to discuss how to do their jobs – frequently.

There were 32 public trustees who accepted the paid-for rooms – not to mention have been officers of the trustee association that happily took the donations, including Velasquez, Brown, Chapman and Debbie Morgan in Larimer County.

Turns out that Weld, Jefferson and Larimer counties also contract with Castle’s GTS company for its foreclosure-tracking software.

The bottom line is if the governor is to continue with the public trustee system and not advocate a change in its structure, he’s likely to be exceedingly careful in hand-picking his appointees now that a lot of people are watching.